When he’s up on stage wearing his cowboy hat and singing in his baritone Texas twang, Joe Buchanan looks at first like a stereotypical American country music singer. But as his big Star of David belt buckle peeks out from under his shirt, and you hear that his lyrics are full of meditations about Shabbat and spirituality, it becomes clear that he is no honky-tonk redneck.

Nothing about Buchanan’s life journey could have been expected when he converted to Judaism following his wife April’s bombshell revelation after 13 years of marriage.

“We had just come out of visiting the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, standing there processing what we’d seen, and my wife said to me, ‘I want to get in touch with my people’s faith,'” Buchanan recalled in a conversation with The Times of Israel. “And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ and she said, ‘Joe, I’m Jewish.’ That set off a process that changed our lives.”

Eleven years after he completed his conversion to Judaism, Buchanan is in Israel for the second time in his life, with concerts scheduled in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Katzrin, in the Golan.

He recently released his third album, Heaven and Earth, which features thoughtful Jewish country music that isn’t all about beer, pickup trucks and heartbreak. It’s “an emotional snapshot” of his struggles with love, faith, antisemitism and other contemporary Jewish themes, Buchanan said.

“To me, country music has always been about storytelling,” Buchanan said. “It’s about people and their struggles, looking honestly at loss and victory and all that stuff. That’s what’s drawn me to it since I was a kid growing up in Texas.”

As Buchanan tells his origin story, it becomes clear that he has had his share of heartache. With the wisdom of someone who has worked to vanquish his inner demons, he uses humor and compassion to brush through rough childhood........

© The Times of Israel